Women's soccer league opens with high hopes

Published 4:00 am, Friday, March 27, 2009

Tonya Antonucci is the commissioner of Women's Professional Soccer at her office in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, March 26, 2009.

Tonya Antonucci is the commissioner of Women's Professional Soccer at her office in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, March 26, 2009.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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Tonya Antonucci is the commissioner of Women's Professional Soccer at her office in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, March 26, 2009.

Tonya Antonucci is the commissioner of Women's Professional Soccer at her office in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, March 26, 2009.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

Women's soccer league opens with high hopes

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A decade after Team USA's momentous victory in the 1999 World Cup, which helped spawn the ill-fated Women's United Soccer Association, women's professional soccer is once more alive and kicking.

Women's Professional Soccer opens its first season Sunday night when the Los Angeles Sol host the Washington Freedom.

Even as the NFL has cut personnel in the teeth of the recession and the Arena Football League is taking the year off because it couldn't afford to play, here comes WPS, ready or not.

The commissioner of the league, sitting in the organization's San Francisco headquarters, didn't blink when asked about the courage it takes to launch a new venture - similar to one that has failed before - in an economic maelstrom.

"The idea of postponing was not even on the table," Tonya Antonucci said. "Is this the right model? Yes. Are the conditions ideal? No."

The league's organizers and investors have been building the league for 3 1/2 years, so the money is already in hand, she said. The group is hoping to capitalize on whatever momentum remains from the U.S. team's soccer gold medal in Beijing last year.

The goal for most of the seven clubs, including FC Gold Pride, which will play at Santa Clara's Buck Shaw Stadium, is to sell about 2,000 season tickets by the start of the season. By the league's projections, that would correlate to about 6,000 fans per game.

A more realistic objective, though, would be somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000 fans per game across the league. "That's our measure for success," Antonucci said.

Antonucci, 40, seems well-suited for the job. She majored in political science and economics at Stanford, where she was a senior on the soccer team when eventual U.S. team captain Julie Foudy was a freshman. Antonucci spent seven years at Yahoo and launched Yahoo Sports and Yahoo Fantasy Sports.

She takes pains to explain how WPS plans to carve a path far different than the one that led the WUSA to lose $100 million in three years.

"They overspent and tried to grow too fast, too early," she said.

Most of the WPS teams will share marketing and game-day-staff operations with Major League Soccer teams, and they'll play in either soccer-specific or smaller stadiums.

The average salary for each of the 18 players on each team is just over $31,000. Players will be able to supplement their income with camps and personal appearances, and they'll be able to play overseas after their seven-month obligations to WPS.

Previously, the top American players stayed in the U.S. residency program, which paid the athletes to train in Southern California and play friendly matches. Now, those 21 players - divided three to a team - will soon be coming to a pitch near you. So will three-time FIFA player of the year Marta.

It wasn't known how much was paid to land Marta, but the Sol's signing of the Brazilian to a three-year deal was "a league-defining statement," Antonucci said. "We said we would have the best players in the world."

How soon will this be the best women's league in the world? "We think it is right now," Antonucci said.

The league will add Philadelphia and probably Atlanta next year, and Antonucci said there are discussions with groups in Vancouver, Denver and Dallas.

But she also insisted the league won't copy the WUSA's ruinous policy of expanding too fast and spending too much. WPS utilizes something called "total team compensation," a euphemism for salary cap.

"We think our goals are modest and achievable in ticket and sponsorship revenue," Antonucci said. "We'll be able to promise fans that we'll be around for many years to come because we've set up a disciplined business model to get there."

Among the league's investors are former Yahoo boss Jeff Mallett and two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Steve Nash. In a generally tough climate for sports sponsorships, Puma and San Francisco's Hint water are providing some financial backing.

"Where some doors are being slammed in our face, other companies are doing well," Antonucci said. "They actually have marketing dollars to spend."

Fox Soccer Channel will televise a Sunday game of the week, and the playoffs will be shown on various Fox Sports Net regional networks. In a four-team postseason, the second best team will get a first-round bye, and the top team will skate right to the final.

The league hopes its $99 price for 10-game season tickets will lure cash-strapped sports fans. "You can see Olympic athlete week in and week out for 10 bucks a game," Antonucci said.

Season opener

Who: FC Gold Pride vs. Boston Breakers

Where: Buck Shaw Stadium, Santa Clara

When: 3 p.m., Sunday, April 5

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